Avengers: Endgame--All The MCU Characters Who Appear In The Movie

Note: This post discusses a bunch of the ins and outs of Avengers: Endgame, so if you haven't seen the movie before checking out this post, you probably should!

Avengers: Infinity War raised the bar with the number of characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe who showed up to do battle with Thanos and his forces. Heroes from all over the MCU had a role to play in the conflict, in some capacity or another. As the climax of a decade of films, Avengers: Endgame also has a huge number of people in it--as well as tons of other Easter eggs, callbacks, and references to the rest of the MCU.

Despite half the universe being eliminated by Thanos' snap, the cameos and role reprisals come fast and furious throughout Endgame--so many, in fact, that you probably missed a few as Marvel reaches deep into the canon for characters who haven't been seen in years. Here is every single MCU character that pops up in some capacity in Endgame

Despite the combine efforts of the Avengers and all their allies, Thanos won the day in Avengers: Infinity War. He escaped to the Garden, a lush and quiet planet, after wrecking the universe. In Endgame, the Avengers take the fight to Thanos.

The man who kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we last saw Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) stranded on Titan after Thanos escaped. Spoiler alert: Tony doesn't then starve to death in space, but instead is a big part of Endgame.

Captain America (Chris Evans) led the fight against Thanos in Wakanda, and was present at ground zero with the rest of the Avengers when people started vanishing. As of the start of Endgame, he hasn't seen Tony since Captain America: Civil War, when the falling out between the two heroes came to blows.

It's been a tough few movies for Thor (Chris Hemsworth). First, he had to blow up his home of Asgard in order to stop his sister, Hela, from murdering everyone. Then Thanos killed half the surviving Asgardian population, and that was before he eliminated 50% of the universe's life with the Infinity Stones. In Endgame, Thor is in full-on rage mode.

Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) was one of the original Avengers, and thus she survived the snap. She and the other main cast spend Endgame trying to figure out how to get back the people they lost.

Though he had trouble hulking out during the fight with Thanos--and one wonders if that might have made a difference--Banner survived the snap and makes use of his big brain in trying to dispatch Thanos once and for all.

After the events of Captain America: Civil War, Clint (Jeremy Renner) was placed under house under the Sokovia Accords, just like Scott Lang. We haven't seen him since, but the snap hit Clint even harder than anyone else, as we discover in Endgame.

In his War Machine armor, Rhodey (Don Cheadle) (but played by Terrance Howard in Iron Man) joined the battle against Thanos in Wakanda. Endgame sees him still fighting the good fight as an Avenger, even after the snap has taken its toll on the world and the other members of the team.

Scott (Paul Rudd) has a big role to play in Endgame, and joins up with the main Avengers in the wake of where the post-credits scene left in Ant-Man and The Wasp.

Only two of the characters who go to Titan to fight Thanos actually survive the snap: Tony Stark and Nebula (Karen Gillan). The pair find themselves stranded in space after escaping the planet in the Guardians of the Galaxy's ship, the Benatar.

Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) is the only surviving member of the proper Guardians of the Galaxy at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. With nothing else to do, he teams up with the Avengers on Earth to try to take Thanos out once and for all.

Though she's new to the MCU, Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) has a role to play in Avengers: Endgame. The post-credits scene in Captain Marvel showed her meeting the Avengers after the battle with Thanos, and we see her join up with the team in Endgame to find and deal with him again.

When Captain America came to Wakanda for help in Avengers: Infinity War, T'Challa and his closest friends and lieutenants stepped up to help. Okoye (Danai Gurira) survived the snap while the Wakandan royals didn't, but her adept leadership means she's probably helping to keep the country going in their absence.

We didn't see Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) in Avengers: Infinity War, despite her major role in the movie that immediately preceded it, Thor: Ragnarok. We've known for a while that she made it through Thanos' attack on the Asgardians, though.

One of the longest-serving MCU characters, both Tony Stark's fiancee, and the head of Stark Industries, Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) is another of those characters who we know survived Thanos' snap in Avengers: Infinity War.

Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) returns thanks to the Avengers' efforts to undo Thanos' snap, allowing him to finish what he started as part of the battle against Thanos' forces in Wakanda in Infinity War.

Tony took Peter (Tom Holland) under his wing in Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming. That makes the loss of Peter in Infinity War all the more heart-wrenching. It had a major effect on Tony, and that influence reaches on into Endgame, as well.

In Avengers: Infinity War, the responsibility of destroying the Mind Stone embedded in Vision's forehead came down to Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen). She managed to do it, even though it killed Vision, but Thanos and the Time Stone got him the stone back--and Wanda was lost to the snap.

After years of being kind of awful, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) finally got his act together and became a relatively good dude by the end of Thor: Ragnarok. Unfortunately, that didn't save him from the wrath of Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War--but being dead has never stopped Loki from showing up again before.

Thanos sacrificed his adopted daughter, Gamora (Zoe Saldana) to get the Soul Stone from Vormir in Avengers: Infinity War. It was a devastating loss for the Guardians, but like just about every other MCU character, she has a part to play in Endgame.

The Guardians fought valiantly against Thanos both in Wakanda and on Titan, but most of them were lost to the snap. Drax (Dave Bautista) has long had a score to settle with Thanos, who killed his family, but vanishing in the snap means Drax didn't get his revenge.

Yet another lost Guardian of the Galaxy, Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) tried to help his love, Gamora, to stop Thanos, but failed--and was lost in the snap at the end of Infinity War.

With the help of Tony Stark, Peter Parker, and Doctor Strange, the Guardians of the Galaxy came close to beating Thanos on Titan in Infinity War. But like most of the other Guardians, Mantis (Pom Klementieff) was among the vanished at the end of the battle.

Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) had a pretty emotional moment with Rocket at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, and that has a big effect on Rocket during the course of Endgame.

We didn't see the last of the Children of Thanos in Infinity War, even though Cull Obsidian (Terry Notary) lost an arm and then his life. While the Children don't get any additional real character development, they at least get a cameo appearance in Endgame.

The wizard of the Black Order, Ebony Maw (Domhnall Gleason), also has a few good moments during the course of Endgame. He's the spookiest of the Children of Thanos in Infinity War, and gets the most to do in the sequel.

Yup, all the Black Order folks get cameo appearances, including Corvus Glaive (Michael James Shaw), best known for being Proxima Midnight's husband and getting stabbed with spears.

You'd be excused for not realizing Proxima Midnight (Carrie Coon) shows up in Endgame, but she's there, at least briefly.

Stephen Strange's mentor (Tilda Swinton) died during the course of Doctor Strange. As was obvious during that movie, though, her magical capabilities are considerable, and time is more of a loose construct for the former Sorcerer Supreme.

We're not really sure what happened to May after Thanos' snap, but she gets a quick cameo appearance at the end of Endgame, calling back her earlier interactions with Tony Stark in Captain America: Civil War.

Both of Thor's parents have perished through the course of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but like other characters, key folks from Thor's story pop up in Avengers: Endgame, Thor's father Odin doesn't make an appearance in Endgame, but Thor's mother, Frigga (Rene Russo) makes a poignant return.

As soon as he returns from the Quantum realm and figures out what's going on, Scott Lang goes in search of his daughter, Cassie (Emma Fuhrmann). She's not among the snapped, lucky for him--but she's certainly changed by what happened in Infinity War.

Thor's astrophysicist buddy Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) doesn't actually show up in Avengers: Endgame, but he does get a mention. Apparently he's among the vanished, the people who got zapped out of existence by Thanos' snap. His photo shows up on the display the Avengers are using to track the fallout of Thanos' victory.

After working together with Scott Lang and his daughter hope in Ant-Man and The Wasp to save his wife, Janet Van Dyne, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) fell victim to the snap. That's a bummer, because his Pym Particle tech is one of the few tricks Tony Stark doesn't have up his sleeve.

The former bodyguard of Tony Stark and head of security at Stark Industries, Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) has been a big part of Tony Stark's life for years. He's also got close ties with Peter Parker, so the snap couldn't have been easy for Happy.

We haven't seen Harley (Ty Simpkins) since he helped Tony repair his Iron Man suit way back in Iron Man 3. Harley was something of a whiz kid back then, though, so maybe he'll have more to do in the MCU of the future.

Tony's dad Howard (John Slattery) had a pretty contentious relationship with his son, right up until Howard's death. But Tony still feels his influence, even in Endgame.

According to Thor, his breakup with Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) was "a mutual dumping." We haven't seen her since the events of Thor: The Dark World, in which Jane was infected by the Aether, the liquid version of the Reality Stone.

In Ant-Man and The Wasp, Hank Pym, Hope Van Dyne, and Scott Lang all worked together to find Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) in the Quantum Realm and rescue her. Unfortunately, she was only back in the real world a short time before becoming one of the vanished.

With Thor's help, Korg (Taika Waititi) started a revolution on Sakaar in Thor: Ragnarok, and helped the Asgardians escape Hela at the end of that movie. We haven't seen him since then, but apparently, Korg and Miek both survived Thanos and the snap.

Miek, it turns out, is pretty tough to kill. He survived Thanos attacking the Asgardians' ship in Avengers: Infinity War, as well as the snap. He also made it through getting accidentally stomped by Korg during Thor: Ragnarok.

The snap got Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), as revealed in the post-credits scene of Avengers: Infinity War--but not before he was able to signal Captain Marvel. Bringing Carol Danvers back to help deal with Thanos is pretty useful in Endgame, so nice work, Nick.

Although SHIELD disbanded in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) stuck close to Nick Fury. She was one of his closest lieutenants before the agency collapsed, and while Nick hasn't been as active in the MCU of late, Hill has still kept close to aid him--right up until she became one of the vanished.

The leader of the Jabari, M'Baku (Winston Duke) fought alongside T'Challa in defense of Wakanda against Thanos' forces. He survived the snap, and as a powerful leader, one assumes he's helping Okoye help keep Wakanda and the rest of Earth safe in a post-Thanos universe.

We first met Clint's family in Avengers: Age of Ultron, when Laura Barton (Linda Cardellini) helped hide the Avengers from Ultron in her house. Unfortunately, as we learn very early in Endgame, Laura and the other Bartons fell victim to the snap.

By the start of Avengers: Endgame, the Barton family has increased by one more member than we see in Age of Ultron--which makes losing everyone to Thanos all the harder for Clint.

Ned (Jacob Batalon) had a brief cameo in Avengers: Infinity War. It's not clear what happened to him after that, whether he survived the snap or didn't.

Doctor Strange's sorcerer friend and colleague Wong (Benedict Wong) fought Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian in New York in Avengers: Infinity War, but left the fight once Doctor Strange was kidnapped, in order to guard New York's Sanctum Sanctorum. How he was affected by the snap or not is unknown.

Peggy (Hayley Atwell) was one of the founding members of SHIELD, integral to the project that made Captain America, and essential to the war effort during World War II in Captain America: The First Avenger. Losing her thanks to his time spent frozen is also Cap's greatest regret.

After the events of Captain America: The First Avenger, Red Skull (Ross Marquand) got stuck in some sort of cosmic purgatory serving the Soul Stone on Vormir in Avengers: Infinity War. According to directors Joe and Anthony Russo, though, now that the Soul Stone has been collected, Red Skull is supposedly free to go.

Pierce (Robert Redford) turned out to be the head of HYDRA in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, orchestrating the organization's big moves to kill a lot of people and take over the world from his position as Secretary of Defense and working with SHIELD. Captain America, Black Widow, and Nick Fury managed to stop him, but it meant taking down SHIELD as well.

Another HYDRA operative pretending to work for SHIELD in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Sitwell (Maximiliano Hernández) gave up a bunch of information when Cap, Black Widow, and Sam Wilson interrogated him (and tossed him off a building).

The queen mother of Wakanda, we haven't seen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) since Black Panther. If she made it through the snap, though, she likely stepped up in her role as a role in a monarch to fill the space T'Challa left.

Comic book fans know Rumlow (Frank Grillo) by his villainous alter-ego, Crossbones. In Winter Soldier, he's the head of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s strike team, but goes even more evil when he pops up again in Captain America: Civil War.

Like Rumlow, Jack Rollins (Callan Mulvey) was a member of the SHIELD strike team that worked with Steve in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. He also turned out to be a HYDRA agent.

After Alexander Pierce was killed in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, retired general Thunderbolt Ross took over the gig. You might remember him as the guy who really, really wanted to kill Hulk way back in the very first MCU movie. He's also the guy who, under the Sokovia Accords, declared Captain America, Sam Wilson, Black Widow, Clint Barton, and Scott Lang to be criminals.

Before Jarvis was the name of Tony's artificial intelligence (which would later go on to form part of the personality of Vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron), he was a guy--Howard Stark's butler. Edwin Jarvis (James D'Arcy) also helped Peggy Carter during her work as a SHIELD agent.

Dr. List (Henry Goodman) was a HYDRA scientist hiding under the nose of SHIELD, working with Baron Von Strucker, the guy the Avengers take down to recapture Loki's scepter at the start of Avengers: Age of Ultron. List shows up in Agents of SHIELD a few times, and while he doesn't appear in Avengers: Endgame, he does get a quick mention.